Assemblable and disassemblable enclosure

ABSTRACT

The enclosure is square or rectangular parallelepipedic shaped, incorporates wall forming panels, vertices at corners and elongated flanges. Each elongated flange has an uniform thickness, protrudes along each lateral side, outwards from a front, external surface of each wall forming panel and extends less than the full length of each lateral side. The elongated flange has a thickness commensurable with corresponding thickness of each of the wall forming panels. A segment of the elongated flange protruding outwards each lateral side equalizes with the thickness of each wall forming panels. An elongated rail, made of plastic material has, relatively, a lesser thickness than the thickness of each of the forming panels, provides a longitudinal and transverse flexibility and internally is so configured as to engage a pair of elongated flanges, perpendicularly positioned and in contact.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims benefit of priority on the basis of Canadian Patent Application No. 3,023,416 filed on Nov. 6, 2018.

I. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention refers in, general, to containers for transport and delivery of goods and, in particular, to an assemblable and disassemblable enclosure, intended for the mentioned purpose.

2. Description of the State of the Art

It is known that containers for the transport of goods incorporate a load space in which the goods are temporarily deposited. The shortcoming with these containers resides in the fact that after the transport of the goods to a desired destination, the containers are costly to return to the point of departure and are often destroyed at their destination, at a cost and at the expense of natural resources.

Attempts have been made to eliminate or at least to alleviate the aforementioned shortcoming. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,820,560, entitled “COLLAPSIBLE BIN” and granted to Nolan on Sep. 2, 2014, discloses a bin including a pair of opposing side panels. The bin further includes a pair of opposing end panels. At least one of the end panels has a plurality of male interlocking members extending outward a first distance along an upper portion of a first side edge and a second plurality of male interlocking members extending outward a second distance greater than the first distance along a lower portion of its first side edge. At least one of the side panels includes a plurality of female interlocking members along a first side edge for receiving the first and second pluralities of male interlocking members extending along the first side edge of the at least one side panels. The main disadvantages of the above bin are the complicated structure, which incorporates male and female interlocking members, and high cost.

Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,613, entitled “DEMOUNTABLE AND REUSABLE SHIPPING CARTON” and granted to Hudson on Nov. 17, 1970, which discloses a rapidly assembled and demountable shipping carton comprising a plurality of similar wall forming panels, each of the latter having a groove formed adjacent one vertical edge and a tongue at the opposite edge, each of the horizontal edges of such panels having a medial securing unit formed thereon and extending less than the full length of such panel; a pair of top and bottom forming members, each having a peripheral edge to overlap, when assembled, the wall forming panels when the latter are assembled in square or rectangular hollow form, each the identical top and bottom forming members having, along each edge, a securing unit to mate with the medial securing unit of the wall forming panels; all of the parts, when assembled, forming a closed container of square or rectangular shape, which may be sealed in closed form by using a tie such as a pressure sensitive tape, gummed tape, or other means which will be recommended for this use. The main disadvantage of the above described patents resides in the use of structurally different components, which render the above shipping carton more complex and, consequently, expensive.

Yet another example is Pat. Application No. 2006/0102517, entitled “FOLDABLE CONTAINER DEVICE” published on May 18, 2006, which discloses a container device including a skeleton having four vertical posts and four lower and four upper beams to be secured between end portion of the posts. Each of the posts includes a slot formed in one side and a groove in the other side of each of the end portions. A number of corner couplers, each including three extensions, perpendicular to each other, for engaging into open ends of the beams and the posts. A number of insert panels are engaged into the end portions of the posts and each includes a screw hole. A number of fasteners are engaged into the corner couplers and threaded with the screw holes of the insert panels to secure the corner couplers, the beams and the posts together to form a paralleliped container.

As can be seen from the above description, the use of corner couplers, fasteners and screw holes renders the FOLDABLE CONTAINER DEVICE cumbersome, inconvenient.

II. OBJECTIVES AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an objective of this invention to provide a mailing or shipping enclosure made of a plurality of preformed panels and interlocking features, which may be assembled rapidly into a rigid enclosure of predetermined size and may be also readily disassembled into individual panels and interlocking features, which can be bundled flat and shipped on a return trip.

It is a further objective of this invention to provide an enclosure as aforementioned, which may be readily produced of either plastic, or cast or manufactured of light metal or any light rigid material which can be shaped to provide interlocking formations at each edge of panels to enable each to form a structure by mating with a perpendicularly adjacent panel.

It is a further objective of this invention to provide mating interchangeable panels.

It is a further objective of this invention to provide a disassemblable enclosure as aforementioned, which may be varied from square to rectangular shape by substituting for two identical opposite side panels of greater length than the adjacent front and back panel and by substitution of conforming top and bottom panels, thus providing versatility in formation of shipping enclosures of varied shapes and sizes.

Another objective of this invention is to provide an inexpensive, rapidly assemblable, disassemblable mailing or shipping container comprising interchangeable panels in multiple predetermined sizes to permit replacement of individual lost or damaged components without loss of other components or replacement of the entire enclosure.

Broadly stating, the assemblable and disassemblable enclosure comprises, when square parallelepipedic shaped, the following:

-   -   6 wall forming panels, all identical; and     -   8 vertices at the corners of the assemblable and disassemblable         enclosure;

An elongated flange, of uniform thickness, protrudes along each lateral side, outwards from a front, external surface of each wall forming panel and extends less than the full length of each lateral side, so that a free space between each ends of the elongated flange and one of the vertices, which is proximate, is formed. The elongated flange has a thickness commensurable with a corresponding thickness of each of the wall forming panels. A segment of the elongated flange protrudes outwards each lateral side equalizing with the thickness of each wall forming panels. An elongated rail made of plastic material, has, relatively, a lesser thickness than a thickness of each of the forming panels, provides a longitudinal and transverse flexibility.

Each elongated rail has a length comparable to that of each elongated flange and a U shaped cross-section with a base and unequal legs: a long leg and a short leg.

The base is, dimensionally, so chosen as to correspond to a height of a cross section of the elongated flange and a thickness of another elongated flange, the former and the latter being perpendicularly positioned and in contact, together abutting interiorly the base.

The long leg is in contact, interiorly, with a surface of the elongated flange, defined by a height of a cross-section of the elongated flange, while the short leg is interiorily in contact with a surface of the elongated rail, defined by a thickness of the elongated rail;

A first lip extends perpendicularly from an end of the long leg, while a second lip extends perpendicularly from an end of the short leg, both former and latter lips being in springy contact with external surfaces of two of the wall forming panels, perpendicularly juxtaposed; and each of the elongated rails, due to its internal configuration, engaging and entrapping by snapping or by telescopic translation each pair of the elongated flanges, which are perpendicularly juxtaposed.

Another embodiment, which is based on the same inventive concept as the one applied in the above disclosed embodiment, comprises a rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure.

In order to be better understood, the description of the instant embodiment is made with reference to the previous embodiment, wherein a square shape enclosure is disclosed. The rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure, herein described, basically distinguishes from the previously described one. Each wall forming panel of a rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure is a rectangle and at least 4 of these rectangles are identical. Concerning elongated flanges and elongated rails, both incorporated by reference in this embodiment, their and their function are identical with those of elongated flanges and those of elongated rails, the former and the latter being incorporated in the previous described embodiment. Since size-wise, the walls forming panels of this embodiment are not equal, their length would accordingly differ. Thus, the lengths of elongated flanges and of elongated rails will be, proportionately, dimensioned.

III. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter of the present invention is particularly pointed out and distinctively claimed in the concluding portion of this specification. The invention, however, both in structure and operation, may be better understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the subjoined claims and the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a fully assembled square parallelipedic shaped enclosure;

FIG. 2 is a fractional perspective view of a wall forming panel, removed from of the enclosure;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a mating pair of wall forming panels of the enclosure;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of an encircled corner zone A of FIG. 3 depicting a pair of wall forming panels before a final contact;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the enclosure;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of an encircled corner zone B of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view partly in section depicting a fully assembled enclosure;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of an encircled zone C of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged view of an encircled zone D of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged view of an encircled zone E of FIG. 7;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of an elongated rail; and

FIG. 12 is a lateral end view of the elongated rail shown in FIG. 11.

IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As a caveat, before the preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed, it is to be agreed that this invention is not limited in its application to the structural details and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description and illustrated in the accompanying in drawings. The invention is applicable to other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various variants. Also, it to be understood that the terms used herein with the reference to the orientation of the “ASSEMBLABLE AND DISASSEMBLABLE ENCLOSURE”, such as “vertical”, “horizontal”, “forward”, “upwards”, “lateral” and the like, are only used to better understand the description of the present invention with reference to a working position of use. Reference 1 was chosen for generally naming the above mentioned preferred embodiment of the invention. For simplification, in the following description, the wording “enclosure 1” substitutes for the wording “ASSEMBLABLE AND DISASSEMBLABLE ENCLOSURE”. Generally stating, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 12, enclosure 1, which is square parallelepipedic shaped, i.e. a cube, comprises, in combination:

-   -   6 wall forming panels 10, all identical;     -   12 elongated rails 20, all identical, intended for releasably         interconnecting perpendicularly mating wall forming panels 10;         and     -   8 vertices 30 at the corners of enclosure 1.

Each wall forming panel 10 is square shaped and is made preferably of plastic material, has an uniform thickness with opposite plane surfaces or, alternatively, can be made of corrugated or honeycomb materials.

An elongated flange 12, of uniform thickness, protrudes along each lateral side 14 outwards from the front, external surface, of each wall forming panel 10 and extends less than the full length of each lateral side 14, so that a free space between each end of elongated flange 12 and a proximate vertex 30 is created. Elongated flange 12 has a thickness (width) commensurable with a thickness 16 of each wall forming panel 10. A segment 18 of elongated flange 12 protrudes outwards from each lateral side 14. The dimension of segment 18, which protrudes outwards lateral side 14, equalizes with the thickness 16 of each wall forming panel 10.

An elongated rail 20 is made of plastic material and has, relatively, a lesser thickness than thickness 16 of each forming panel 10. Thus, elongated rail 20 acquires a longitudinal and transverse flexibility.

Each of said elongated rails 20 has a length comparable to the length of each elongated flange 12 and has a U shaped cross-section with a base B and unequal legs, a long leg L and a short leg S. Base B is dimensionally so chosen as to correspond to a height of a cross section of an elongated flange 12 and a thickness (width) of another elongated flange 12, when the former and the latter are perpendicularly positioned and in contact, and together abut interiorly base B.

Long leg L is in contact interiorly with a surface of elongated rail 20 defined by the height of the cross section of elongated rail 20, while short leg S is in contact interiorily with a surface of elongated rail 20 defined by the thickness (width) of another elongated rail 20.

A first lip LP1 extends perpendicularly from an end of long leg L, while a second lip LP2 extends perpendicularly from an end of short leg S. Both first and second lips LP1 and LP2 are in springy contact with external surfaces of two perpendicularly juxtaposed wall forming panels 10.

Each elongated rail 20, due to its internal configuration, engages and entraps by snapping or by telescopic translation a pair of perpendicularly juxtaposed elongated flanges 12.

Another embodiment, which is based on the same inventive concept as the one applied in the above disclosed embodiment, comprises a rectangular parallelepipedic shaped enclosure, i.e. a cuboid shaped enclosure.

In order to be better understood, the description of the instant embodiment is made by reference to the previous embodiment, wherein a cube shaped enclosure is disclosed. The cuboid shaped enclosure, herein described, basically distinguishes from the previously described one. Thus, in a cube shaped enclosure, each of the 6 identical wall forming panels 10 is a square and all of these squares are equal.

Each wall forming panel of a cuboid shaped enclosure is a rectangle and at least 4 of these rectangles are identical.

Concerning elongated flanges and elongated rails, both are incorporated by reference in that cuboid shaped enclosure, their structure and their function are identical with those of elongated flanges 12 and those of elongated rails 20, the former and the latter being incorporated in the cube shaped enclosure. Since size-wise, the walls forming panels of the cuboid shaped enclosure are not equal, their length would accordingly differ. Thus, the lengths of elongated flanges and of elongated rails will be, proportionately, dimensioned.

The embodiments of the invention, in which an exclusive property or privilege are claimed, are defined as follows:

Claim 1. An assemblable and disassemblable enclosure selected from the group consisting of a square parallelepipedic shape enclosure and a rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure, said square parallelepipedic shape enclosure comprising

-   -   6 wall forming panels, all identical; and     -   8 vertices at the corners of said assemblable and disassemblable         enclosure;     -   an elongated flange of uniform thickness, protruding along each         lateral side, outwards from a front, external surface of each         said wall forming panel and extending less than the full length         of each said lateral side, so that a free space between each         ends of said elongated flange and one of said vertices, which is         proximate, is resulting; said elongated flange having a         thickness commensurable with a corresponding thickness of each         said wall forming panels; a segment of said elongated flange         protruding outwards each said lateral side equalizing with said         thickness of each wall forming panels;     -   an elongated rail made of plastic material and having,         relatively, a lesser thickness than said thickness of each of         said forming panels, provides a longitudinal and transverse         flexibility;         each said elongated rail having a length comparable to that of         each said elongated flange and a U shaped cross-section with a         base and unequal legs: a long leg and a short leg;         said base being, dimensionally, so chosen as to correspond to a         height of a cross section of said elongated flange and a         thickness of another said elongated flange, the former and the         latter being perpendicularly positioned and in contact, together         abutting interiorly said base;         said long leg being in contact, interiorly, with a surface of         said elongated flange, defined by a height of a cross-section of         said elongated flange, while said short leg being interiorily in         contact with a surface of said elongated rail, defined by a         thickness of another said elongated rail;         a first lip extending perpendicularly from an end of said long         leg, while a second lip extending perpendicularly from an end of         said short leg, both former and latter lips being in springy         contact with external surfaces of two of said wall forming         panels, perpendicularly juxtaposed; and         each of said elongated rails, due to its internal configuration,         engaging and entrapping by snapping or by telescopic translation         each pair of said elongated flanges, which are perpendicularly         juxtaposed; and

Another embodiment, which is based on the same inventive concept as the one applied in the above disclosed embodiment, comprises a rectangular parallelepipedic shaped enclosure, i.e. a cuboid shaped enclosure.

In order to be better understood, the description of the instant embodiment is made by reference to the previous embodiment, wherein a cube shaped enclosure is disclosed. The cuboid shaped enclosure, herein described, basically distinguishes from the previously described one. Thus, in a cube shaped enclosure, each of the 6 identical wall forming panels 10 is a square and all of these squares are equal.

Each wall forming panel of a cuboid shaped enclosure is a rectangle and at least 4 of these rectangles are identical.

Concerning elongated flanges and elongated rails, both are incorporated by reference in that cuboid shaped enclosure, their structure and their function are identical with those of elongated flanges 12 and those of elongated rails 20, the former and the latter being incorporated in the cube shaped enclosure. Since size-wise, the walls forming panels of the cuboid shaped enclosure are not equal, their length would accordingly differ. Thus, the lengths of elongated flanges and of elongated rails will be, proportionately, dimensioned. 

1. An assemblable and disassemblable enclosure selected from the group consisting of a square parallelepipedic shape enclosure and a rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure, said square parallelepipedic shape enclosure comprising 6 wall forming panels, all identical; and 8 vertices at the corners of said assemblable and disassemblable enclosure; an elongated flange, of uniform thickness, protruding along each lateral side, outwards from a front, external surface of each said wall forming panel and extending less than the full length of each said lateral side, so that a free space between each ends of said elongated flange and one of said vertices, which is proximate, is resulting; said elongated flange having a thickness commensurable with a corresponding thickness of each said wall forming panels; a segment of said elongated flange protruding outwards each said lateral side equalizing with said thickness of each wall forming panels; an elongated rail made of plastic material and having, relatively, a lesser thickness than said thickness of each of said forming panels, provides a longitudinal and transverse flexibility; each said elongated rail having a length comparable to that of each said elongated flange and a U shaped cross-section with a base and unequal legs: a long leg and a short leg; said base being, dimensionally, so chosen as to correspond to a height of a cross section of said elongated flange and a thickness of another said elongated flange, the former and the latter being perpendicularly positioned and in contact, together abutting interiorly said base; said long leg being in contact, interiorly, with a surface of said elongated flange, defined by a height of a cross-section of said elongated flange, while said short leg being interiorily in contact with a surface of said elongated rail, defined by a thickness of another said elongated rail; a first lip extending perpendicularly from an end of said long leg, while a second lip extending perpendicularly from an end of said short leg, both former and latter lips being in springy contact with external surfaces of two of said wall forming panels, perpendicularly juxtaposed; and each of said elongated rails, due to its internal configuration, engaging and entrapping by snapping or by telescopic translation each pair of said elongated flanges, which are perpendicularly juxtaposed; and said rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure comprising wall forming panels, all rectangular, at least 4 of said wall forming panels being identical; said elongated flanges and said elongated rails, incorporated in said rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure having identical structure and function as those of corresponding square parallelepipedic shape enclosure; since size-wise, said walls forming panels of said rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure are not equal, their length would accordingly differ; thus, the lengths of said elongated flanges and of said elongated rails of said rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure are, correspondingly, dimensioned to fit to said rectangular parallelepipedic shape enclosure. 